╨╧рб▒с > ■ ) + ■ ( ье┴ 7 Ё┐ ╢ bjbjUU " 7| 7| ╢ l ╥ ╥ ╥ ╥ ╥ ╥ ╥ ц ╕ ╕ ╕ ╕ ─ ц ╢ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ╕ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╦ ы x ║ ╥ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ║ Ц ╥ ╥ ▄ ▄ ╧ Ц Ц Ц ▄ ╥ ▄ ╥ ▄ ╕ Ц ▄ ╕ Ц " Ц ╕ ╥ ╥ ╕ ▄ ╨ PЛ╧┌s╧ц ╥ ╕ Є ╕ ╕ х 0 ╕ c О c ╕ Ц ц ц ╥ ╥ ╥ ╥ ┘ June 2014 PresidentТs Message
Dear Family of St. PaulТs,
УMy love is like a red, red rose
ThatТs newly sprung in June:
My love is like the melody
ThatТs sweetly played in tune.Ф
Having just celebrated all things Scottish one fine Saturday evening not so long ago here at St. PaulТs I thought it might be fitting to start this monthТs note with a little taste from the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. Robert, or Bobby to his friends, had quite a way with words and IТm pretty sure more than a stray suitor or two in courtship have used his verse. Human love, romantic love, can be a wondrous, powerful thing. So, where am I going with this in a church newsletter you ask? Simply to say as amazing and wondrous as romantic love can be it pales in comparison to the love God shows us through his son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As our teacher, friend and pastor James Townsend reminds us from time to time of the words of St. Augustine: УGod loves each of us as if there were only one of us.Ф In the Gospel of John 15:12 NRSV Christ states: УThis is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down oneТs life for oneТs friends.Ф And of course that is precisely what Christ did for all of us and dauntingly what he asks, or as Bobby Burns might say УnayФ, commands of us, which brings me to my next point. On June eighth of this year, fifty days after Easter, we will celebrate Pentecost the day on which God sent the advocate, the Holy Spirit to guide us, strengthen us and firm our all too human and weak resolve so we can strive to be little ChristТs in the world. As St. Paul relates in Ephesians 6:13 NRSV: УTherefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.Ф
Okay, my sermon for the month is complete. I should leave homiletics to our very capable quintet of pastors. My point is simply that we are not in anything alone, we have each other and we have Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit. A good friend of mine, a Jesuit, wrote a book titled УWhere God WalksФ the subtitle of which is Уeveryday encounters with mystery.Ф In the book, a collection of stories or vignettes, Father Breault shows how God through the Holy Spirit is active in our everyday lives in often very simple ways. For the month of June letТs try to be open to this spirit and receptive to the power the spirit can bring.
Finally then, over the summer months lets try to come up with some ideas on how we can better serve each other, our community and our Lord. One area of particular concern is our youth program or more accurately our lack of one. With LaVonne StrutzТ retirement as St. PaulТs youth Sunday School leader and instructor we need to come up with a plan to fill the void. With only a few young folks at church we have considered having classes perhaps once or twice a month starting this fall. If you have any ideas or would like to teach or can help in some way let us know. In the meantime continue to pray for one another, for those in need, and for our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world.
Peace and blessings,
Chuck Prewett
Your Council President
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